Billy Harper Quintet - Soran Bushi B.H. (excerpt)
My internet is sucking its own cock as usual, because in the US $350 a month gets you dial-up speeds and the CEO gets a 45 billion dollar bonus. Exceptional!
Anyway it's February and that means it's Black History Month, so look out for a motherlode on that, beginning with this little anniversary missive.
Our honoree today first happened upon the scene at the start of the 1970s -- after a short stint in the Jazz Messengers -- in the group of Lee Morgan, who soon after sadly passed away.
This led our hero to bust out on his own, where he became a tenor sax superstar in his own right after a couple of high-temperature hard bop LPs.
He's been at it ever since, and since I missed his 80th birthday last month, I just had to get this show up on its 42nd anniversary.
The reality is I've wanted to cover Billy "Capra Black" Harper on here since this page's inception, and today I finally get to do it.
Billy Harper Quintet
Keystone Korner
San Francisco, CA
2.6.1981
01 Croquet Ballet
02 Is It Not True, Simply Because You Cannot Believe It?
03 Soran Bushi B.H.
Total time: 53:29
Billy Harper - tenor saxophone
Chris Albert - trumpet
Armen Donelian - piano
Louis Spears - bass
Malcolm Pinson - drums
master cassette of the original NPR "Jazz Alive!" broadcast
slightly edited and remastered -- with tape flip gap in Track 03 joined -- by EN, February 2023
359 MB FLAC/direct link
I'll be back after the middle of the month, when what I have planned for BHM really kicks into gear.
This Billy Harper "Jazz Alive!" sure is a great port from which to shove off, though... trust me.--J.